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Redefining healthcare delivery

The doctor-patient relationship is deteriorating. Today's information technology solutions are exacerbating the problem by perpetuating paternalistic decision-making and episodic care. CollaboRhythm is a technology platform that enables a new paradigm of healthcare delivery; one where patients are empowered to become active participants and where doctors and other health professionals are transformed into real-time coaches. We believe that this radical shift in thinking is necessary to dramatically reduce healthcare costs, increase quality, and improve health outcomes.

Giving patients the chance to speak

Increasing understanding of how to categorize patient symptoms for efficient diagnosis has led to structured patient interviews and diagnostic flowcharts that can provide diagnostic accuracy and save valuable physician time. But the rigidity of predefined questions and controlled vocabulary for answers can leave patients feeling over-constrained, as if the doctor (or computer system) is not really attending to them. I'm Listening is a system for automated questioning that respects the voice of the patient and makes the task of information elicitation more enjoyable and educational.

Discovering cures in 'everyday experiments'

Collective Discovery aims to leverage the intuition and insights of patient communities en-mass to capture and mine information about everyday experiences; this enables communities to "think with data" and collaborate in the formation and support of novel hypotheses. This new mode of community discourse will lead to better decision making, stronger self-advocacy, identification of novel therapies, and inspiration of better hypotheses in traditional research, accelerating the search for treatments.

Making physical therapy fun and effective

Patient adherence to physical therapy regimens is poor, and there is a lack of quantitative data about patient performance, particularly at home. This project aims to build an end-to-end virtual rehabilitation system for supporting patient adherence to home exercise that addresses the multi-factorial nature of the problem. Using the proposed system, the physical therapist and patient make shared decisions about appropriate exercises and goals and patients use a sensor-enabled gaming interface at home to perform exercises. Quantitative data is then fed back to the therapist, who can properly adjust the regimen and give reinforcing feedback and support.

Getting to know your food moods

Nearly one-third of the population of the United States is obese, and another one-third is overweight, resulting in significant health risks. Behavioral aspects including dietary habits, emotional states, and lack of physical exercise are the primary contributors to this phenomenon. In this project, we use smart phones to log dietary habits; track user behaviors, social interactions and emotional states; and gather the context of their actions. This information is then used to provide context-sensitive education based on trend detection, and just-in-time persuasive feedback to improve eating habits, reduce emotional eating, moderate exposure to unhealthy eating environments, and encourage better choices including greater physical activity. Social reinforcement would also used to further motivate users.

Connecting the circadian dots

Sleep problems such as insomnia have a significant impact on public health, affect the quality of life and productivity of millions daily, present a yearly economic burden in the billions, and are strongly associated with multiple comorbid conditions. Several factors affecting sleep are primarily behavioral and not always obvious. This project aims to detect the behaviors that affect sleep and use this knowledge to help users improve sleep habits. While asleep, a wearable sensor headband is used to track the quality of sleep. While awake, smart phones are used to capture behaviors that can impact sleep. Based on the data collected, the phones will also be used to provide context-sensitive suggestions and coaching elements borrowed from cognitive behavioral therapy to improve awake behaviors and sleep habits, while their communication capabilities will be used to enhance social support from sleeping partners and family members.

Archived Projects

Automated disease tracking and visualization

HealthMap is a multi-lingual, real-time disease outbreak tracking and visualization system. Launched in 2006, the Web site collects over 300 reports per day in English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese, from both general news media and public health sources around the world. It has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers.